A federal judge in Washington, D.C., convicted a 35-year-old Tennessee man of breaking into the United States Capitol and assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 attack, the Department of Justice reported on Friday.
The judge found Edward Kelley guilty of three felonies: civil disorder, one count of destroying government property worth more than $1,000, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain police. The judge also found him guilty of eight offenses. Kelley is now facing Tennessee charges in an alleged plot to assassinate FBI agents investigating him for his involvement in the Capitol brawl. The court will sentence him on April 7.
Kelley was one of a group of rioters that confronted Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman on January 6, wearing tactical gear such as a helmet, gas mask, gloves, and glasses. They began shrieking at him, demanding, “Where are they counting the votes?” The officer attempted to guide Goodman away from the evacuated Senate chamber, but Kelley and co. pursued him up a set of stairs. People hailed Goodman as a hero and awarded him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
During Kelley’s trial, FBI Special Agent Jessi Mann testified that he seemed to be wearing a waistline gun holster, which Kelley most likely wore that day and would have concealed a gun, according to NBC News. Mann further stated that Capitol surveillance photographs from that day clearly displayed the weapon’s “printing” or outline, as well as the clip from the holster on Kelley’s jeans. The agent also testified that Kelley purchased boxes of ammo and gas masks prior to the attack, according to NBC.
Law&Crime previously reported that Kelley stormed the Capitol that day to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
He smashed a window at the building with a wooden plank before kicking in a door to let other rioters in, according to court documents. Investigators also claimed that he and two other guys got into a fight with a Capitol police officer, throwing him to the ground.
After his arrest in the Jan. 6, 2022 case and while awaiting trial, authorities accused Kelley of plotting to kill the law enforcement officers investigating him. Authorities claimed they captured him discussing “assassination missions” with acquaintances and compiling a hit list with them.
“The envelope contained a printed document titled ‘The list’ with approximately thirty-seven names, positions and some phone numbers of the law enforcement personnel who participated in the criminal investigation of Kelley,” court documents said . “The list specifically identified which law enforcement officers were ‘present at arrest or home search’ of Kelley on May 5, 2022. The list appears to be a computer-generated word document. Additionally, the envelope contained a thumb drive of what appears to be video footage from Kelley’s home security camera from the morning of the search of Kelley’s home on May 5, 2022, which depicts at least one law enforcement officer approaching Kelley’s home.”
According to court documents, one witness who spoke with law enforcement supplied “the list” to investigators on a thumb drive in an envelope.
Authorities stated the witness came forward to detectives with this evidence.
Online court records schedule Kelley’s trial in the FBI murder plot case in Tennessee for November 18.
